Managing workflows upon a security incident

RELATED APPLICATIONS

0001This application is related to and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/087,025, entitled “ACTION RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COMPUTING ASSETS BASED ON ENRICHMENT INFORMATION,” filed on Dec. 3, 2014, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/106,830, entitled “ACTION RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ADMINISTRATORS IN A COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT,” filed on Jan. 23, 2015, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/106,837, entitled “SECURITY ACTIONS IN A COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT,” filed on Jan. 23, 2015, and which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

0002Aspects of the disclosure are related to computing environment security, and in particular to managing the allocation of workflows in response to a security incident.

TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

0003An increasing number of data security threats exist in the modern computerized society. These threats may include viruses or other malware that attacks the local computer of the end user, or sophisticated cyber attacks to gather data and other information from the cloud or server based infrastructure. This server based infrastructure includes real and virtual computing devices that are used to provide a variety of services to user computing systems, such as data storage, cloud processing, web sites and services, amongst other possible services. To protect applications and services, various antivirus, encryption, and firewall implementations may be used across an array of operating systems, such as Linux and Microsoft Windows.

0004Further, some computing environments may implement security information and event management (SIEM) systems and other security detection systems to provide real-time analysis of security alerts generated by network hardware and applications. In particular, SIEM systems allow for real-time monitoring, correlation of events, notifications, and console views for end users. Further, SIEM systems may provide storage logs capable of managing historical information about various security events within the network. Although SIEMs and other security threat identifying systems may generate security alerts for devices within the network, administrators may be forced to translate each of these alerts into particular actions, which takes time and resources. Further, notifications of incidents may not be helpful in determining which administrator of a plurality of administrators should be responsible for reacting to a security incident.

OVERVIEW

0005The technology disclosed herein enhances how security action recommendations are provided to administrators of a computing environment. In one example, an advisement system for managing service level agreements (SLAs) for security incidents in a computing environment is configured to identify a rule set for a security incident based on enrichment information obtained for the security incident, wherein the rule set is associated with one or more action recommendations to be taken against the security incident. The advisement system is further configured to identify a default SLA for the security incident based on the rule set, and obtain environmental characteristics related to the security incident. Based on the environmental characteristics, the advisement system determines a modified SLA for the security incident.

0006In some implementations, the default SLA and the modified SLA each comprise a hierarchy of administrators to respond to a security incident, and a set of one or more time periods for administrator selected actions.

0007In some implementations, the advisement system may further be configured to provide the action recommendations to administrators based on the SLA determinations for the security incident.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

0008Many aspects of the disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. While several implementations are described in connection with these drawings, the disclosure is not limited to the implementations disclosed herein. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents.

0009<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> illustrates a computing environment to manage security actions for a plurality of network assets.

0010<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref> illustrates a method of operating an advisement system to provide action recommendations for a plurality of network assets.

0011<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> illustrates an operational scenario of identifying security actions according to one example.

0012<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref> illustrates an overview of providing action recommendations to an administrator based on previously implemented actions.

0013<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 5</figref> illustrates a computing environment to recommend and implement security actions based on the effectiveness of previous actions.

0014<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 6</figref> illustrates an advisement computing system to provide action recommendations for a plurality of network assets.

TECHNICAL DISCLOSURE

0015The various examples disclosed herein provide enhancements for managing service level agreements (SLAs) for security incidents in a computing environment. In many organizations, security systems, such as security information and event management (SIEM) systems provide real-time analysis of security alerts generated by network hardware and processes. The network hardware and processes may include routers, firewalls, operating systems and applications executing on one or more computing devices, switches, or intrusion detection systems, amongst a variety of other network devices and processes. During the analysis of the particular network, a SIEM system may identify an issue, and flag the issue as a possible security threat. Once flagged, the SIEM system may provide information to an administrator, or store information about the threat to be analyzed for a possible solution.

0016Here, in addition to the operations provided by the SIEM system or other security monitoring systems within a computing environment, an advisement system may be used to identify, implement, and recommend security actions to be taken against security threats. For example, if a SIEM system identified a possible security threat within an asset of a computing environment, information about the threat could be transferred to the advisement system, supplementary information about the threat could be identified, and actions could be taken against the threat based on a preconfigured rule set. These actions may include a variety of procedures that eliminate, segregate, monitor, or provide other similar actions on the identified threat. In some examples, the advisement system may be configured to implement a default action without user interaction against the threat. However, in addition to or in place of the default action, one or more suggested actions may be provided to an administrator, and the administrator may select the one or more actions to be taken against the security threat. The actions taken may include taking a snapshot of the affected computing asset, segregating the asset from other assets, removing an application related to the incident, blocking a particular internet protocol address related to the incident, or providing any other similar action to protect assets in the environment from the security incident—including combinations thereof.

0017In some implementations, SLAs may be associated with the rule set identified for the security threat, and include information about the hierarchy of administrators that should handle the selection of the security action in the environment, as well as time periods that are allowed for each of the administrators to respond to the particular threat. Although a default or original SLA may be associated with a particular rule set. This rule set may be modified based on environmental characteristics for the threat. In particular, the SLA may be modified based on a criticality rating of the computing asset associated with the threat, a current severity level of the security threat within the environment, a rate of events for the security incident, current market conditions, geopolitical conditions, or other similar environmental characteristics. For example, the advisement system may determine that there are a large number of incoming requests from a known malicious internet protocol (IP) address. Accordingly, the amount of time for the administrator to select an action for the threat may be decreased to ensure that an action is taken. Similarly, in addition to or in place of reducing the amount of time to respond, the hierarchy of administrators for responding to the incident could be changed, such that new administrators may be responsible for implementing the necessary action.

0018In some examples, in response to identifying a security incident in the environment, the advisement system may implement a first action to contain the particular incident. This may be accomplished using virtual local area networks (VLANs) for systems involved in the threat, preventing networked communication for the infected device, or other similar containment reactions for an incident. In addition to the containment action, which may be initiated as a default instruction or by user instruction, one or more action recommendations may be provided to an administrator to remove the particular security threat from the environment. In that example, the amount of time to respond may be modified based on the effectiveness of the containment action. For instance, if the containment of the security threat prevented the threat with communicating with other systems, the period of time to implement an action to remove the threat could be made longer. In contrast, if the containment action were not effective, the period of time to implement an action remove the threat may be made shorter, as the threat creates possible issues for other security assets in the environment.

0019In some instances, the SLA hierarchy of administrators may require multiple administrators to approve an action before it is implemented in the system. For example, two administrators or users of the computing assets may be required to agree on an action before it can be applied to the computing assets. Further, once a set of action recommendations are provided to an administrator, the administrator may modify the action recommendations, remove action recommendations, or defer action selection to another administrator or set of administrators, or provide other similar feedback with regards to the action recommendations. For instance, the administrator may be provided with a list IP addresses to be blocked on a computing asset. However, the administrator may select one or more of the IP addresses to prevent the addresses from being blocked by the computing system. In response to the feedback from the administrator, the action recommendations may be modified in accordance with the feedback, or may be implemented with the administrator selected modifications.

0020To further illustrate the operation of an advisement system within a computing network, <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> is provided. <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> illustrates a computing environment <b>100</b> to manage security actions for a plurality of network assets. Computing environment <b>100</b> includes computing assets <b>110</b>-<b>116</b>, SIEM system <b>120</b>, advisement system <b>130</b>, sources <b>140</b>, and administration system <b>150</b>. Computing assets <b>110</b>-<b>116</b> include applications <b>110</b>, routers <b>111</b>, intrusion detection systems and intrusion prevention system (IDS/IDP) <b>112</b>, virtual private networks (VPNs) <b>113</b>, firewalls <b>114</b>, switches <b>115</b>, and operating systems <b>116</b>, although other assets may exist. Assets <b>110</b>-<b>116</b> may execute via any number of computing systems or devices. In addition to the routers and switches, these computing devices may include server computers, desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, and the like. Although not illustrated in the present example, in some implementations, assets may be defined at computing system level. Accordingly, assets may be defined as physical computing systems, such as servers, end user computing systems, host computing systems, and the like, and may further be defined as virtual computing systems, such as virtual machines executing via host computing systems. These physical and virtual computing systems may include an operating system, applications, processes, firewalls, and other similar computing resources.

0021SIEM system <b>120</b>, advisement system <b>130</b>, internal and external sources <b>140</b>, and administration system <b>150</b> may each include communication interfaces, network interfaces, processing systems, computer systems, microprocessors, storage systems, storage media, or some other processing devices or software systems, and can be distributed among multiple devices. SIEM system <b>120</b>, advisement system <b>130</b>, and sources <b>140</b> may comprise one or more server, desktop, laptop, or other similar computing devices. Administration system <b>150</b> may comprise an end user device, such as a desktop computer, laptop computer, smartphone, tablet, or any other similar computing device.

0022Advisement system <b>130</b> communicates with SIEM system <b>120</b>, sources <b>140</b>, and administration system <b>150</b> via communication links that may use Time Division Multiplex (TDM), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), internet protocol (IP), Ethernet, synchronous optical networking (SONET), hybrid fiber-coax (HFC), circuit-switched communication signaling, wireless communications, or some other communication format, including combinations and improvements thereof. Similarly, SIEM system <b>120</b> may gather information from assets <b>110</b>-<b>116</b> via a plurality of communication links to the computing systems associated with the assets, wherein the links may use TDM, ATM, IP, Ethernet, SONET, HFC, circuit-switched communication signaling, wireless communications, or some other communication format, including combinations and improvements thereof. While not illustrated in the present example, it should be understood that advisement system <b>130</b> might communicate with the assets over various communication links and communication formats to implement desired security actions.

0023In operation, SIEM system <b>120</b> receives data and performance information from assets <b>110</b>-<b>116</b> and performs inspections to identify possible security issues. Once SIEM system <b>120</b> identifies a possible security threat, information about the security threat is transferred to advisement system <b>130</b>. Advisement system <b>130</b> identifies the security threat and analyzes the threat using sources <b>140</b> to determine actions against the security threat. These actions might include default actions that can be initiated and implemented within the environment without interaction from an administrator, and might further include suggested actions that can be provided to administrator (admin) <b>160</b>. Once the suggested actions are determined, the suggested actions are transferred, via email, text message, or other similar format, to administration system <b>150</b> to be presented to administrator (admin) <b>160</b>. From the suggested actions, administrator <b>160</b> may select a particular action and advisement system <b>130</b> may implement the action within the computing environment.

0024In some implementations, SLAs may be used to define how an incident is handled in the environment, such as the amount of time that administrators have to implement an action for the threat, as well as define a hierarchy of administrators to handle the threat. For example, when a threat is identified, advisement system <b>130</b> may determine an SLA for the incident, which identifies a period of time for administrator <b>160</b> to implement an action before it is transferred to another administrator within the defined hierarchy.

0025Referring now to <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref> to further demonstrate the operation of advisement system <b>130</b>. <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref> illustrates a method <b>200</b> of operating advisement system <b>130</b> to manage SLAs for security incidents. As described above in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref>, SIEM system <b>120</b> receives information from a plurality of network assets <b>110</b>-<b>116</b> and identifies security threats to devices and systems based on the information. Once a threat is identified, the threat is then transferred to advisement system <b>130</b>. Advisement system <b>130</b> identifies the security threat or incident within environment <b>100</b>, and identifies a rule set for the security incident based on enrichment information for the security incident (<b>201</b>). In some examples, when the incident is identified by advisement system <b>130</b>, information about the incident may be included, such as an outside IP address related to the incident, a process name that is related to the incident, a number of occurrences of the particular incident, a uniform resource locator (URL) related to the incident, an identifier for the computing asset associated with the incident, or any other similar information about the incident. Based on the information supplied for the incident, advisement system <b>130</b> may query or retrieve enrichment information about the particular threat from internal and external sources <b>140</b>. These sources may include databases, websites, or any other repository that includes information about computer security threats.

0026Once the enrichment information is retrieved from the sources, a rule set may be determined for the particular incident. For example, an unknown process may be identified as a security incident within a computing asset. In response to identifying a name for the unknown process, advisement system <b>130</b> may query the sources to gather further information about the incident. Based on the enrichment information that is provided for the unknown process, a rule set may be determined along with associated action recommendations to take against the threat. Accordingly, if the enrichment information indicated that the threat was malware, a rule set and action recommendations may be made identified based on the malware identification.

0027In addition to the action recommendations, advisement system <b>130</b> further identifies a default SLA for the incident based on the rule set (<b>202</b>), which may include a hierarchy of administrators to respond to the incident, as well as one or more time periods for which they have to respond to the incident. For example, action recommendations may be provided to a first administrator that does not respond within a required time period. Accordingly, the recommendations may be provided to secondary administrators to ensure that a response is given to the incident.

0028Here, advisement system <b>130</b> further obtains environmental characteristics related to the security incident (<b>203</b>), and uses the characteristics to dynamically generate a modified SLA for the security incident (<b>204</b>). The environmental characteristics may include the criticality of the computing asset with the security incident, the number of occurrences of the incident within the environment, the severity of the incident, the current geopolitical climate when the issue took place, or other similar characteristics separate from the security incident itself. Once the characteristics are determined, various algorithms may be used to modify or adjust the default SLA for the current incident.

0029For example, a security incident that involved malware may have a predefined hierarchy of administrators, as well as a predefined time period for response. However, if the malware were on a critical financial officer's computing system with possibly sensitive data, the default SLA may be improper for handling that particular issue. Accordingly, based on the criticality of the asset, the hierarchy of administrators may change to remedy the security threat, and the time periods for which the administrators have to respond to the issue may be shortened due to the criticality of the asset.

0030In some implementations, the rule set for a particular threat may be associated with a default action that could be used to contain a particular threat. These containment default actions may include preventing future communications from an affect asset, placing the affected asset within a VLAN, or some other containment action. In addition to the containment action, user action suggestions may be generated for administrators responsible for the particular asset, which may be used to remove the incident from the computing asset. In some examples, the time period for an administrator to implement an action may be based on the effectiveness of the containment process. Accordingly, if the containment process prevented outgoing communications, or the spread of the security threat to other systems in the environment the administrators may be provided with a longer time period to implement an action. In contrast, if the containment action were not effective, a reduced period of time may be given to implement a user-defined action.

0031In some examples, the administrators may dynamically modify the security actions that are supplied. This dynamic modification may include denying a particular action, approving a particular action, delegating the responsibility of responding to the action to another administrator or set of administrators, modifying action parameters, such as IP addresses to be blocked, or some other dynamic modification to the action recommendations. For example, a first administrator may be provided with an action recommendation to block a set of IP addresses. During the review of the action, the administrator may select at least one IP address that does not need to be blocked. Once the IP address is no longer included in the blocked list, the first administrator or a second administrator may apply the modified action.

0032In some instances, multiple administrators may be required to implement a particular action. For example, a security administrator may select to implement a firewall rule for one or more computing assets in the environment. In response to selecting the action, administrators associated with the computing assets, which could be users of the computing assets, may be required to approve the change and implement processes to apply the firewall rule. Accordingly, rather than approval from a single administrator, multiple administrators or users may be required to approve an action before it can be implemented within the environment.

0033Although illustrated in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> with a SIEM system, it should be understood that in some examples other systems, such as the assets themselves within the computing environment, might be used to identify security threats. Further, although illustrated separate in the example of <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref>, it should be understood that SIEM system <b>120</b> might reside wholly or partially on the same computing systems as advisement system <b>130</b>.

0034Turning to <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref>, <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> illustrates an operational scenario <b>300</b> of providing action recommendations to an administrator according to one example. Operational scenario <b>300</b> includes asset <b>310</b>, advisement system <b>320</b>, sources <b>325</b>, environment data <b>327</b>, action suggestions <b>330</b>, and administrator <b>340</b>. As described herein assets may comprise operating systems, virtual machines, application files, routers, switches, firewalls, or any other similar asset. Further, in some examples, assets may be defined as an entire computing system, such as a server or personal computing system, which includes an operating system, files, applications, and processes.

0035As described herein, security systems and processes, such as SIEM systems, are configured to identify possible security incidents within a computing environment that includes a plurality of computing systems and assets. Here, asset <b>310</b> is identified with a security incident, and a report of the incident is transferred to advisement system <b>320</b>. This incident report may be generated by an agent that is collocated on the same computing system or device as asset <b>310</b>, or may be generated by an external system such as a SIEM that reports the incident to advisement system <b>320</b>.

0036In response to the incident, advisement system <b>320</b> obtains enrichment data from sources <b>325</b>, which may comprise databases, webpages, or other resources that store information about security threats. For example, a database may be maintained that includes recently identified malware applications. Accordingly, if the incident report indicated an unknown application executing on an asset, the unknown application may be compared to the identified malware applications of the database to determine a rule set for the unknown application. In some implementations, to manage the various rule sets for the advisement system, one or more data structures may be accessible by the advisement system that relates rule sets to enrichment information about the incident. For example, an incident may be reported for an unknown process executing on a virtual machine asset. Once enrichment information is gathered about the unknown process, the advisement system may identify a rule set that applies to unknown the enrichment information determined about the unknown process for the virtual machine. Accordingly, an unknown process that is known to be malicious from the enrichment information may be associated with a different rule set than an unknown process that cannot be confirmed to be malicious.

0037Upon determining the rule set, advisement system <b>320</b> may identify action suggestions <b>330</b> that are related to the particular rule set. Further, a default SLA may be determined for the incident, based on the rule set that indicates which administrator or administrators are responsible to take action against the particular incident, and further specifies the amount of time that each administrator has to respond to a particular issue.

0038Once the default SLA is determined for the incident, the SLA may be modified based on environment data <b>327</b>. Environment data <b>327</b> may include the severity of the incident within the environment, the number of occurrences of the incident within the environment, the geopolitical state, or other similar information related to the threat. For example, environment data <b>327</b> may indicate that an unknown IP address is frequently attempting to contact a computing asset within the computing environment. To modify the SLA, advisement system <b>320</b> may reduce or increase the amount of time that each administrator has to respond to an incident based on environment data <b>327</b>, and may change the personnel that are responsible for the incident based on environment data <b>327</b>. Referring to the unknown IP address example from above, based on the frequent attempts of the unknown IP address, advisement system <b>320</b> may reduce the amount of time that the administrator has to respond or refer the incident to another administrator.

0039As illustrated in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref>, action suggestions <b>330</b> continue to be provided to administrator <b>340</b>, allowing the administrator to make an action selection for the environment. However, dynamic response period <b>337</b> is included with action suggestions <b>330</b>, indicating a period of time for which administrator <b>340</b> has to respond. Dynamic response period <b>337</b> may decrease if the incident is critical or severe based on environment data <b>327</b>, or may increase if the incident is determined to be less severe based on environment data <b>327</b>.

0040In the present example, only one administrator is illustrated, however, it should be understood that action suggestions might be provided to multiple administrators in some instances. Here, if administrator <b>340</b> makes a selection of actions <b>335</b>-<b>337</b> within dynamic response period <b>337</b>, advisement system <b>320</b> may initiate implementation of the action within the computing environment. In some examples, advisement system <b>320</b> may provide administrator <b>340</b> with a workflow that guides the administrator through the necessary steps of implementing the particular action. For example, if the action involved a firewall modification, advisement system <b>320</b> may include steps for the administrator to log into the associated computing asset, and implement the necessary procedures on the computing asset. In other implementations, advisement system <b>320</b> may include the ability to automate all or portions of the particular action selected by administrator <b>340</b>. For example, advisement system <b>340</b> may identify the type of device and software provider associated with a particular modification and take preprogrammed steps to implement the required action.

0041In some implementations, administrator <b>340</b> may not respond to the incident within the time that is required by the SLA and dynamic response period <b>337</b>. As a result, a default action may be taken by advisement system <b>320</b> to ensure that the incident does not remain active within the environment. This action may be the top ranked suggestion if a plurality of suggestions are provided to the administrator, or may be any other default action associated with the particular identified rule set.

0042Turning to <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref>, <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref> illustrates an operational scenario <b>400</b> of providing action recommendations to administrators within a defined hierarchy according to one implementation. Operational scenario <b>400</b> includes advisement system <b>420</b> and recommendation interface <b>440</b>. Recommendation interface may be provided on advisement system <b>420</b> in some examples, or displayed to administrators <b>450</b>-<b>451</b> on console devices. The console devices may include, but are not limited to, desktop computing systems, laptop computing systems, tablet computers, and smartphones.

0043In operation, advisement system <b>420</b> identifies a security incident for an asset within a computing environment. This identification may be provided directly from the computing asset, or may be transferred from a SIEM or other security systems within the network. In response to the incident, advisement system <b>420</b> determines a rule set for the incident based at least in part on enrichment data obtained from internal and/or external sources. These sources may include databases that store security threat information, websites that maintain records of possible security threats to computing assets of an environment, or some other similar sources that can be searched by advisement system <b>420</b>. Once the rule set is determined action recommendations <b>431</b>-<b>433</b> may be identified and provided to associated administrators.

0044Here, in addition to identifying the action recommendations, the rule set may also identify a default SLA that is associated with the particular incident. This default SLA may include a hierarchy of administrators that should be used to respond to the incident, as well as a time period for each of the administrators to respond to the incident. This default SLA may then be modified based on environmental conditions that are associated within the incident. In particular the environmental conditions or characteristics may include information about how active the incident is in the environment, the criticality rating of the asset associated with the incident, which may be assigned by an administrator or may be based on the data included with the asset, or some other similar information. In modifying the SLA advisement system <b>420</b> may change the hierarchy of which administrators are responsible for initiating the actions within the environment, and may also modify the time periods that the administrators have to respond to the action.

0045As the modified SLA is determined, advisement system provides recommendation interface <b>440</b> for administrator <b>450</b>. Upon expiration of the time period for receiving an action from administrator <b>450</b>, suggestions are provided in recommendation interface <b>441</b> to administrator <b>451</b>. Once presented, administrator <b>451</b> selects second recommendation <b>432</b> from recommendations <b>431</b>-<b>433</b> to be applied against the threat. Once selected, advisement system <b>420</b> may initiate a process to implement the action within the computing environment. This process may include providing a workflow to the administrator to implement the action, or implementing automated processes that are preconfigured for the hardware and software associated with the incident.

0046In some implementations, the modified SLA determinations may be made periodically or throughout the presence of the threat. For example, a first modified SLA may be determined based on first environmental characteristics related to the incident, and a second modified SLA may be determined based on second environmental characteristics related to the incident. As an example, a first modified SLA may be determined when an incident is not very active within the environment, however, as time progresses the incident may become more prevalent resulting in an increased number of reports associated with the incident. Accordingly, the hierarchy of administrators and/or the time period for response by the administrators may be changed to reflect the increased number of reports associated with the incident.

0047Although illustrated in the present example as providing the same action recommendations in both recommendation interface <b>440</b> and recommendation interface <b>441</b>, it should be understood that in some examples the recommendations might change when they are provided to different administrators. Further, while only two administrators are illustrated in the present example, it should be understood that any number of administrators might be included within a hierarchy, including two or more administrators receiving actions at the same instance.

0048Referring now to <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 5</figref>, <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 5</figref> illustrates a timing diagram <b>500</b> for providing action recommendations to administrators based on containment of a security incident according to one implementation. <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 5</figref> includes assets <b>510</b>, advisement system <b>520</b>, and administration console <b>530</b>. Assets <b>510</b> may comprise real or virtual computing systems, software systems, routers, switches, and other similar assets as described herein. Advisement system <b>520</b> may comprise any device or system of devices capable of providing the security action services described herein. Administration console <b>530</b> may comprise any computing system, such as a desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet computer, smartphone, and the like.

0049As illustrated, advisement system <b>520</b> identifies a security incident in at least one asset of assets <b>510</b>. In response to the incident, advisement system <b>520</b> may identify a rule set based on enrichment information for the incident. For example, the incident report may include a variety of information about the incident, including an IP address associated with the incident, an asset identifier with the incident, a process associated with the incident, or any other similar information about the incident. Using this information, advisement system <b>520</b> may obtain enrichment information for the incident from internal and external sources, and determine a rule set for the incident based on the enrichment information. Once the rule set is determined, advisement system <b>520</b> may take a containment action against the incident to prevent the spread of the incident to other computing assets in the environment.

0050Before, during, or after the containment action, suggested security actions determined for the rule set may be provided to administration console <b>530</b>. These actions may be used to remove the incident from the environment rather than simply containing the incident. As illustrated in the present example, advisement system <b>520</b> further monitors the containment of the incident to determine the effectiveness of the action in assets <b>510</b>, and modifies the period to respond for the administrator at administration console <b>530</b>. For example, if the containment action in assets <b>510</b> was effective in containing the incident in the assets, then advisement system <b>520</b> may provide a longer time period for the administrator to select an action. In contrast, if advisement system <b>520</b> determined that the containment action were not effective in assets <b>510</b>, then advisement system <b>520</b> may reduce the period to respond to the incident for the administrator.

0051Although not illustrated in the present example, it should be understood that if the administrator does not select and implement an action in the environment within the specified time period, advisement system <b>520</b> might implement a default action without the discretion of the administrator.

0052Turning to <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 6</figref>, <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 6</figref> illustrates an advisement computing system <b>600</b> to provide action recommendations for a plurality of network assets. Advisement computing system <b>600</b> is representative of a computing system that may be employed in any computing apparatus, system, or device, or collections thereof, to suitably implement the advisement systems described herein. Computing system <b>600</b> comprises communication interface <b>601</b>, user interface <b>602</b>, and processing system <b>603</b>. Processing system <b>603</b> is communicatively linked to communication interface <b>601</b> and user interface <b>602</b>. Processing system <b>603</b> includes processing circuitry <b>605</b> and memory device <b>606</b> that stores operating software <b>607</b>.

0053Communication interface <b>601</b> comprises components that communicate over communication links, such as network cards, ports, radio frequency (RF) transceivers, processing circuitry and software, or some other communication devices. Communication interface <b>601</b> may be configured to communicate over metallic, wireless, or optical links. Communication interface <b>601</b> may be configured to use TDM, IP, Ethernet, optical networking, wireless protocols, communication signaling, or some other communication format—including combinations thereof. In particular, communication interface <b>601</b> may communicate with security identification systems, such as SIEM systems, security systems on the assets themselves, or some other security identification system. Further, communication interface <b>601</b> may be configured to communicate with one or more administration consoles to provide the suggested actions to administrators, and the computing assets of the environment to implement selected actions.

0054User interface <b>602</b> comprises components that interact with a user. User interface <b>602</b> may include a keyboard, display screen, mouse, touch pad, or some other user input/output apparatus. User interface <b>602</b> may be omitted in some examples.

0055Processing circuitry <b>605</b> comprises microprocessor and other circuitry that retrieves and executes operating software <b>607</b> from memory device <b>606</b>. Memory device <b>606</b> comprises a non-transitory storage medium, such as a disk drive, flash drive, data storage circuitry, or some other memory apparatus. Operating software <b>607</b> comprises computer programs, firmware, or some other form of machine-readable processing instructions. Operating software <b>607</b> includes rule set module <b>608</b>, default module <b>609</b>, environment (enviro) module <b>610</b>, and modify module <b>611</b> although any number of software modules may provide the same operation. Operating software <b>607</b> may further include an operating system, utilities, drivers, network interfaces, applications, or some other type of software. When executed by circuitry <b>605</b>, operating software <b>607</b> directs processing system <b>603</b> to operate advisement computing system <b>600</b> as described herein.

0056In particular, rule set module <b>608</b>, when executed by processing system <b>603</b>, directs processing system <b>603</b> to determine a rule set for a security incident within a computing environment comprising a plurality of assets. To determine the rule set, advisement computing system <b>600</b> may identify a security incident within the computing environment that is either reported directly from the assets or from a security management system, such as a SIEM system. Once the incident is identified along with information about the incident, enrichment information is obtained from various sources that relates to the incident, and a rule set is determined based on the enrichment information. For example, if the enrichment information indicated that an unknown process within the computing environment was malicious, a rule set may be determined that relates to malicious processes. Upon determination of the rule set, a set of action recommendations may be identified that are associated with the rule set, and can be provided to one or more administrators.

0057Once the rule set is identified, default module <b>609</b> may direct processing system <b>603</b> to identify a default SLA for the security incident based on the rule set. This default SLA may include a hierarchy or order of which to provide the action recommendations to the administrators, and may further provide a time period for which each of the administrators has to respond to the incident. For example, a SLA may provide two administrators that are capable of responding to the issue and specify a time period for each of the administrators to respond to the issue.

0058After determining the default SLA, environment module <b>610</b> may direct processing system <b>603</b> to obtain environmental characteristics related to the security incident. These characteristics may be determined from the computing assets themselves, including the number of occurrences of the incident, the amount that the incident has spread between the assets, or any other similar information from the assets. Further, the characteristics may be determined from one or more databases that include information about the severity of the particular incident, the criticality of the asset infected, the current geopolitical climate, or any other information that might relate to the environment. Based on the characteristics determined that are related to the security incident, modify module <b>611</b> directs processing system <b>603</b> to determine a modified SLA for the security incident based on environmental characteristics. This modification may include changing the set or hierarchy of administrators to respond to the incident, or increasing or decreasing the period of time available to respond to the incident.

0059The included descriptions and figures depict specific implementations to teach those skilled in the art how to make and use the best option. For the purpose of teaching inventive principles, some conventional aspects have been simplified or omitted. Those skilled in the art will appreciate variations from these implementations that fall within the scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the features described above can be combined in various ways to form multiple implementations. As a result, the invention is not limited to the specific implementations described above, but only by the claims and their equivalents.